Friday, December 18, 2009
by
Janell

Sorry it's taken me so long to post pictures! I finally remembered to bring my camera. I really should get one to keep there permanently. Anyway, here's our set up. It's more function that pretty but at least we can work out of it now. We'll work on making it pretty as we earn more money. :)

Monday, December 7, 2009
by
Janell

Today our shop passed the final inspection from the health department which means we can open! Although I might wait a week or two to officially open since I am completely wiped out. :) This endeavor was a lot of stress and work. But I'm looking forward to working out of my shop and advertising. It took us a while to find a plumber and get the sinks installed but thankfully we were able to find a good plumber who took care of it quickly. I'm so excited to move in and start working. Have I already mentioned that? I have a lot of cake sketches I want to turn into cakes but have been too preoccupied with business stuff. But first I have to give my house a thorough cleaning since it's been neglected lately. Thanks so much everyone for your support and well wishes!

Saturday, September 12, 2009
by
Janell

A few months ago, my friend and I decided we'd finally like to start our own businesses. She would keep her business and I would keep mine, but we'd split the rent on a commercial space and just share the shop. Since then we've been trying to get everything lined up, business plans, finances, buying up equipment as we found it at a good price, etc. We also fell in love with a space for rent that used to be a restaurant, which meant we wouldn't have to renovate it too much. We finally signed the lease a couple of weeks ago so I cleaned it up and took pictures to show off. It's so cute and kind of secluded which normally wouldn't be a good thing for a business but since we'll only be open by appointment only then it's perfect for us. And as an added bonus, we were able to find another girl to share the rent with who wants to open her own cookie business. Now the only thing in our way is all the permits and licenses we need. The first and easiest one that we have to get isn't proving so easy to get. In fact, it's stalled everything since we can't even turn the electricity on until we get it. I've been nicely harrassing them a couple of times a day so hopefully it will pay off soon. At least before I lose it and bust into their office with my big rolling pin. Oh, and here are pictures of my shop.

Thursday, September 10, 2009
by
Janell

I recently video taped myself making a chocolate doberge cake for my brother's birthday. A couple of friends were asking me how to do it so I figured I would share it with all of you. You start with 2 layers of yellow cake. Then it's filled with chocolate bavarian cream. Homemade is definitely the best. The cake supply stores sell some premade but it's pretty gross. Here's the recipe I used but next time I will use milk chocolate instead of semi sweet because I'm a milk chocolate kind of girl. This was found on grouprecipes.com

Heat cream, butter and sugar to boiling. Pour over chocolate and let stand 5 minutes. Stir from center out until smooth. After refrigerating 1 hour then fill your piping bag

Or use to ice your cake by pouring or spreading (allow to cool to room temp first)

So there are the recipes I used to make a Doberge cake. You can also make a lemon doberge cake by using lemon filling, white buttercream, and poured fondant icing with a little lemon extract added. Very good. And here's the video demonstrating how I made it.

Thursday, August 20, 2009
by
Janell

Hi everyone,I'm sorry I've been unable to answer questions lately. I'm trying to get things together to open a cake shop and it's a ton of work and research! I've barely had time to do any actual cake stuff. So it may be a while before I can answer your questions but you can try http://cakecentral.com/ to get some answers. Hopefully when things settle down I'll be able to put together an FAQ sheet for the most common questions. Thanks!

by
Janell

I entered a picture of one of my baby shower cakes in an online contest over at Cutest Baby Shower Ideas and won 1st place. And it comes with a prize of a $50 gift certificate! Hooray for online contests!

by
Janell

Thank you Kanga for giving me the Kreative Blogger Award! Ok, let's see if I can get this right.

Here are the RULES of this Award:

(1) Thank the person who nominated you for this award. (check)(2) Copy the logo and place it on your blog. (cannot figure this out yet)(3) Link to the person who nominated you for this award. (check)(4) Name 7 things about yourself that people might find interesting. (check)(5) Nominate 7 Kreativ Bloggers. (check)(6) Post links to the 7 blogs you nominate. (check)(7) Leave a comment on each of the blogs, letting them know they have been nominated.

1. I am a sci-fi geek. I love science fiction tv shows!2. I have a cake obsession but can't make a decent looking cupcake. I always take them out too soon and they sink in the middle.3. My husband is the best guy in the world. :)4. I love Bollywood movies.5. I have two cats who think the world revolves around them.6. I'm a coupon clipper.7. I'm getting ready to open my own cake shop!

Thursday, June 4, 2009
by
Janell

I made this recipe out of desperation one day. I wanted something sweet and chocolate but I was out of everything I could possibly use to make anything decent. No chocolate chips, no cocoa powder, no milk, I think I may even have been out of sugar. What I did have was some frozen buttercream and one chocolate cake mix. I definitely didn't want cake but I remembered hearing someone mention being able to make cookies from a cake mix. So I looked it up on the internet and found this recipe that called for very few ingredients. Perfect! They came out similar to the Doozies from the Great American Cookie Co.

Monday, May 18, 2009
by
Janell

As if we needed an easier way to add volume to our hips, someone discovered how to make a cake in the microwave within a couple of minutes. Unfortunately, it's really quick and easy so I find myself making it when normally, I would bypass sweets because I don't feel like going to the trouble of baking. The recipe I found that tastes the best was posted on an online forum by a woman named Jeanie, so that's as much as I can credit her. I make mine in a bowl because my mugs are kind of small (and it's easier to *cough*double the recipe.)

"Mix together all your ingredients and stir well. Put the cup in the microwave and cook it on full power for 60 seconds. Depending on the power of your microwave, and your altitude (go figure) you may have to cook the cake longer. Only cook in additional 15 second intervals, because an overcooked cake is no good, and it's even worse because you're microwaving it. Trust me, you think an overcooked cake out of the oven is dry and yucky, try having a solid wedge of dry microwave cake sometime. No fun. Once your cake is finished, it should be nice and fluffy."

by
Janell

For her birthday, my friend requested a chocolate cake filled with chocolate mousse. I had never made chocolate mousse before so I was excited to try it out. I watched a couple of videos on youtube and found a recipe with good reviews and actually got it right on the first time. So it's pretty easy. It's basically a fluffy chocolate pudding. Here's the recipe I used. It has egg yolks in it so I recommend buying fresh eggs even if you already have eggs from last week in the fridge.

In a microwave or double broiler, heat chocolate, 1/4 cup water, and butter until the chocolate and butter are melted. Cool for 10 minutes.

In a small saucepan, whisk egg yolks, sugar, and remaining water. Cook and stir over low heat until mixture reaches 160 degrees F, about 1-2 minutes.

Remove from heat and whisk in chocolate mixture.

Set saucepan in ice and stir until cool, about 5-10 minutes.

Fold in whipped cream.

Spoon into dessert dishes and refrigerate 4 hours or overnight.

I like this recipe because the egg yolks are heated to kill off bacteria. Which was probably negated when I added the whipped egg whites. I didn't want to waste perfectly good egg whites so I whipped them to the soft peak stage and added a TBS of sugar even though the recipe didn't call for them. I folded them in like the whipped cream and it gave the mousse a little more volume. If you want your mousse a little denser then don't bother with the egg whites. To whip the cream, it helps if the bowl is chilled so just stick it in the freezer for a few minutes. I also didn't bother to cool the mixture in an ice bath since that sounded like too much work. I just let it cool on its own while I whipped the cream and egg whites.

Monday, April 27, 2009
by
Janell

I wanted to thank everyone for their prayers and kindness when Jared died. We are very fortunate to have such good friends and family. I made a video in memory of my brother mainly to spread awareness of the growing problem of prescription drug abuse. We live in a time where we can get effective medicine for many ailments and I used to think that was a good thing. However, their regulation is very lax and they've become easy for people to get and misuse or abuse. Many teens are self medicating or abusing prescription drugs because they think they are safer or they can find them in their parents medicine cabinets. I encourage parents to learn as much as they can about the dangers of prescription drug abuse and to teach their children. Keep your prescriptions locked away and hidden. When you don't need them anymore, mix them with something gross like cat litter or coffee grounds, seal them in a non see through bag or container, and throw them in the garbage. Please don't flush them down the toilet or sink since they can harm the environment. I've included information and links to reputable drug prevention sites on the video page. Please take a few minutes to learn what you can about prescription drug abuse. It's become a major problem and is claiming so many victims.

Wednesday, March 25, 2009
by
Janell

My youngest brother, Jared, died Sunday afternoon on March 22. He was 22 and the baby of the family. He became addicted to prescription medicines and used them until his body couldn't take it anymore. He died from an accidental overdose. We were horrified to hear him say once that oxycontin was better than heroin. We tried so hard to help him but he refused to acknowledge he had a drug problem. He kept insisting he quit or he was in control. We thought we had more time to help him. I miss him so much.

Wednesday, February 25, 2009
by
Janell

Yay! I entered my topsy turvy valentine's cake in the Cakecentral online cake contest and I won second place. Yippee! Although I'm surprised it placed at all. There were some cakes that put my cake to shame, they were so well done. Oh well, unless they say they made a mistake in counting the votes, then I think it's awesome I came in second!

Monday, February 16, 2009
by
Janell

When I made my short video for my Valentine's day cake a lot of people requested directions to make it. So I re-edited the video to make it longer and included directions. Hopefully it's clear enough but let me know if you have any questions.

I made this cake from 6", 8", and 10" tiers each 3 layers high. I iced them with buttercream and then covered with fondant. I recently discovered the "secret combination" for covering cakes with fondant. I'm probably the last person in the world to figure it out but I found that if I chilled the cakes in the fridge for a couple of hours, spritzed them with water, then covered with fondant, and then chilled them in the fridge again, then my cakes wouldn't inflate like a balloon. If I covered a chilled cake with fondant and left it on the counter to decorate then it got all sorts of horrible air bubbles and ruined my smooth fondant. So it turns out the cake and fondant have to get to the same temperature so they don't fight each other. The cake doesn't have to stay cold either. I take it out of the fridge a a couple of hours before the party and it gets to room temperature by the time it's cut and it still looks great. It glistens a little from the condensation but I think it's a fair trade off. Chilled cakes are so much easier to cover.

Update: *sigh* My own mother "accidentally" rated my video 3 stars. Since I just uploaded the video today and only a few people have viewed it then I'm deleting it and uploading it again. Mom! Do you have any idea how long it takes to upload a video to youtube?! Eh, don't worry about it. :)

Wednesday, February 11, 2009
by
Janell

I found out about a cake decorating contest that Ace of Cakes and the Food Network were holding on Youtube and just couldn't pass that up. So I started trying to think of designs for my entry. A few months ago my nephew drew a cake for me and I loved it so much I put it on my fridge. When he came over for Christmas I showed him I had his picture displayed. He asked "so did you make it yet"? Ha! I had no idea it was an order! So I decided to base my contest design on his drawing. Hopefully he'll be happy with it. :)

This was also the first time I made a video. It had to be under three minutes for the contest so everything is cut a little short but I'll try to make a longer video this weekend to demonstrate how to make a topsy turvy style cake.

This cake was made from a 6", 8", 10" cake and covered with fondant. The topper is made from rice krispie treats and gumpaste, and it says "Chris and Janell", of course. ;)

Friday, January 16, 2009
by
Janell

I decided to try out a new cookie recipe so I went to Allrecipes.com. I love that site because everyone rates recipes and sometimes recommends variations. Everyone gave this recipe high reviews so I decided to try it out and they really were as good as everyone said they were. I halved the recipe because even though I may want to eat 6 doz. cookies, I really shouldn't. :) Here's the link if you want to try them yourself:

In a large bowl, cream together the butter, brown sugar, and white sugar. Beat in the instant pudding mix until blended. Stir in the eggs and vanilla. Blend in the flour mixture. Finally, stir in the chocolate chips and nuts. Drop cookies by rounded spoonfuls onto ungreased cookie sheets.

Bake for 10 to 12 minutes in the preheated oven. Edges should be golden brown.

* The only thing I did differently was to use margarine instead of butter and add butterscotch chips. Yum. Just thinking about them makes me want to bake some.

Tuesday, January 13, 2009
by
Janell

Sorry for abandoning my blog for a while! Here's a delicious lemon cake recipe to make up for it. This was recommended by a friend and comes from the Food Network. It also has a filling and icing recipe but I didn't try that part. It has a light, real lemon flavor, unlike the artificial taste that comes from the box mixes and it has lemon zest. Lemon zest is wonderful! It can be frozen for later use too.

Directions1. To make the lemon cake, preheat the oven to 325 degrees F. Grease and flour your pans. (I prefer to use Baker's Joy)

2. In a medium bowl, sift together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. Stir together the dry ingredients with a whisk. Set aside.

3. In an electric stand mixer, using the paddle attachment or beaters, beat the butter on medium speed for about 30 seconds, or until creamy. Gradually add the sugar, increase the speed to medium-high, and continue to beat until the mixture is light, about 3 minutes. Scrape down the sides of the bowl.

4. Add the whole eggs and egg yolks, one at a time, beating well after each addition. Beat in the vanilla and lemon zest. Reduce the speed to low and gradually beat in the lemon juice (the batter will appear curdled at this point smooth out after you add the dry ingredients). Beat in the dry ingredients in 3 additions alternately with milk in 2 additions. Scrape down the sides of the bowl and beat for another 10 seconds. Scrape the batter into the prepared pans.

5. Bake the cakes for 30-35 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into the center of each cake comes out clean. Cool the cakes in the pans on wire racks for 20 minutes. Invert the cakes onto the racks and cool completely.

*I'm a little more generous with the lemon zest and juice. I filled this cake with lemon filling and cream cheese frosting, a fantastic combination. To get the lemon zest, use a vegetable peeler and lightly peel off the yellow part of the of the lemon. You don't want the white stuff under it. Then chop it up and you have lemon zest.